Adilabad: The Muslims in Adilabad parliament constituency generally voted for the Congress in the elections on Monday, unlike in the assembly elections when their votes were split between the Congress and the BRS.
The minorities were mindful that the BJP won four assembly seats in the district due to a split in their votes between the Congress and BRS in the 2023 assembly polls.
The voting trends this time hint that 90 per cent of the Muslim votes went in favour of the Congress, while 70 per cent of the Lambada community voted in favour of the BJP for the Adilabad LS seat.
There were a total of 16,50,175 votes -- of 8,04,875 male and 8,45,213 female voters -- in the constituency.
A large number of Lambada community leaders, including leaders of the BJP and BRS, met BJP candidate Godam Nagesh at his house in Adilabad town on Tuesday and congratulated him, saying that they voted for the BJP.
Both Congress and BJP claim they will win the Adilabad seat. Yet, grim-faced BRS leaders pinned their hopes on the beneficiaries of various welfare schemes rolled out by KCR.
A former BRS MLA here admitted that 90 per cent of the Muslims voted for the Congress party this time, to defeat the BJP, unlike in assembly elections. “We still have a strong feeling that Muslims got benefits such as Shadi Mubarak and other minority welfare schemes, pensions and KCR kits, KCR nutritional kits etc from the BRS government. However, this was time to vote for the Congress,” he said.
BJP won Adilabad, Mudhole and Nirmal assembly seats because of a split in the Muslim votes between the BRS and Congress parties. There was a split in Muslim votes between BSP and BRS for the Sirpur (ST) assembly seat in the 2023 elections under Adilabad LS.
According to rough estimates, there are 4 lakh tribal votes including 2.5 lakh adivasis votes in the Adilabad LS, whereas Lambada votes total 1.5 lakh. A split among the adivasis votes between the BRS, BJP and Congress is evident, since these three candidates belonged to the Adivasi Gond community.
